> We overtrain docs and we’ve built hospitals that focus on private rooms instead of wards. Both of those hugely increase the labor cost and will take a long time to undo.
If I was a patient at a hospital, I would not be able to control this:
> We overtrain docs
That part is outside my control.
... but, I, as a patient at a hospital, would be able to control this:
> we’ve built hospitals that focus on private rooms instead of wards
Infact, some of hopitals in the U.S. do have ward deliveries - I believe Kaiser Permanente have shared rooms?
However, that is the rub - people are not explicitly requesting private rooms - hospitals just have them so they can charge as much as they can.
If you walk into a hospital, you cant ask to have a ward delivery. They take you to a private room by default - no questions asked. That's all they have.
Then the bill comes and the game begins - if the insurance company does not pay, the hospital will then come after you. They will put you on a payment plan.
If you can't make payments, they will sell you to collections. Some hospitals might settle for an upfront cash payment but then it cannot go through your insurance and you are out of money AND you did not meet your family deductible either.
If there was a choice to new parents between ward deliveries for $50k and private rooms for $150k, I know which one I would take.
I don't have that choice because my employer might not be offering care though Kaiser Permanente and the hospitals in network might only have private rooms.
So change employers because I prefer ward deliveries?
I did not mean exactly that, but this happens too.
Not every new parent can afford the expense of birth. So the hospitals try and squeeze out as much as they can from every party to try and even it out.
As a high income earner, I'm specially vulnerable to this practice.
No judge or newspaper or activist has particular empathy that I got charged $200k for a delivery or $6k for an 2 mile ambulance ride.
I can afford to pay it so why am I being so picky about it?
